By: Alexandra Hostetter
When asked, most people from the Eastern Shore will eagerly share why they chose to build their life on a rural peninsula, sandwiched between the Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean.
They will point to their favorite tract of forested wetland, where they await the return of the ospreys each year. They will tell you about the hot, sticky summers, spent fishing and crabbing, and the time-worn tale about the monster rockfish that got away. They will introduce you to the family farm, and the generation after generation who have cultivated and loved the same land.
Woven together, their answers help articulate why the Eastern Shore is so special, so unique, and why people – both locals and the millions of visitors to the region each year – can agree that there aren’t many places left like it.
Yet despite the Eastern Shore’s intrinsic and economic value, it is a region under threat.
The Eastern Shore is a hotspot for climate change, one of the nation’s most vulnerable regions for sea-level rise, and at risk for more frequent and severe storms. These climate-related impacts are in part driven by unsustainable development, which directly threatens the health, livelihoods, and security of already-vulnerable Eastern Shore communities. Unsustainable development like the proposed Del-Mar pipeline.
Despite Governor Hogan’s 2017 ban on fracking for gas in Maryland, concluding that “the possible environmental risks simply outweigh any potential benefits”, the Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company is pursuing the construction of 19+ miles of new pipeline to carry fracked gas from Delaware to Maryland. The seven miles of pipeline proposed for Maryland specifically would supply two main customers – the Eastern Correctional Institution and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore, in Somerset County. If built this would trigger another pipeline to connect the prison to the university. Smaller branches would eventually supply fracked gas to homes and businesses along the route, setting a precedent for future development and expansion.
Despite the economic benefits touted by pipeline advocates, prioritizing potential monetary gains is short-sighted, and disregards the long-term prosperity of the communities and natural landscape impacted by the pipeline. Environmentally, the pipeline has the potential to generate irreversible damage to wetlands and streams during construction. Specifically, if approved, the seven miles of construction in Maryland would disrupt roughly 16,000 square feet of wetlands and 1,239 square feet of streams. This environmental scarring is compounded by the climate-impacts of fracked gas, which research has shown to be just as bad, if not worse, than coal over a 20-year timeframe.
Of equal importance, there are real, documented risks of transporting fracked gas through communities, including toxic air pollution and contaminated drinking water, from accidental leaks or deliberate releases of gas known as “blowdowns.” During a blowdown, gases are intentionally released to control pressure, which due to their intensity, can expose local residents and the environment to toxic substances.
Tragically, natural gas pipelines are not fail-proof, and also put homes, businesses, and lives at risk to explosions and burns. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration produces a report on “serious” pipeline incidents, those that include a fatality or injury requiring hospitalization. For the 20 years of 1996-2016, they recorded 858 serious incidents, with 347 fatalities (more than 17 each year) and 1,346 injuries.
Approval of the Del-Mar pipeline would reject the strong commitments Maryland, and its citizens, have made to become a leader in clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction by further cementing the state’s dependence on fossil fuels. It is unconscionable to approve the pipeline project when there are sustainable alternatives that can provide reliable energy, protect human and environmental health, and jumpstart job creation and local economies.
While the views and the priorities of those who live on the Eastern Shore may differ, we still find ourselves on common ground. Our lives, and our stories, are all bound to the same shared forests, waterways, and farmlands that shape this irreplaceable peninsula. If we don’t stop the proposed Del-Mar pipeline, and unhealthy projects like it, we are endangering our treasured Eastern Shore now, and for generations to come.